Early this morning, a Brockhampton fan took to Twitter to clarify some screenshots and posts she had made. In the Tweet, user @aliciaxcxles said, “As some of you have already figured out, the allegations made against Ciaran (also known as Bearface) are all fake. The first tweets that came out 6 days ago, the ones from 4 days ago and the screenshots on my acc.”
The user had previously taken to the social media to try and accuse the boyband member of misconduct, alluding to grooming behaviour. She outlined her reasoning, saying: “I have been in the (Brockhampton) fandom for about 3 years now and every now and then we see (people) freaking over anonymous “allegation” tweets that could literally be made up by anybody.” She continued saying that the fandom would “immediately (cancel) members without even the slightest bit of proof.”
For context, a few of the Brockhampton members have been accused of misconduct before and notably, one member, Ameer Vann, was removed from the band from sexual assault accusations that appeared on Twitter.
The user continued, saying, “Someone could make up a whole story and fake dms in 10 mins (exactly what we did) and some yall will still believe it without any doubt and go on retweeting it, calling a young innocent man a predator (exactly what yall did)… We wanted to spread awareness on fake news and how easily it can be made to seem real but we didn’t know what to do to get people to hear us out.”
But, what this user failed to realise was that Twitter is all that some accusers have. Throughout the #MeToo era, Twitter has been a platform for victims to accuse their abusers and be heard, as proving assault legally can at times be quite difficult. Sadly, what this Twitter user has ultimately done is throw false accusations to the wind, damaging Ciaran’s reputation and subsequently damaging the validity of actual accusations.
The Twitter user continued, “We know this isn’t something to joke about and that spreading false information is toxic… this past week we’ve felt (really) guilty about what we started, but I feel like this was the only way to spread awareness.”
Sadly, this “spreading awareness” has simply done more damage than good. The original “fake news” posts have already been screenshotted and spread around the depths of the internet and now that this user has deleted her reasoning, many people may still believe these accusations.
Further, those who know of this clarification are now forced to contemplate if any of the other accusations are also fake. All that these Tweets have done is make it that much harder for accusers to have their story be heard and believed.
If you, or anyone you know, is a victim of sexual assault contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 1800 RESPECT for support services.
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